This king of comedy doesn't hold back

Universal Pictures
Cedric the Entertainer plays Martin Lawrence's cousin in "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins," a comedy about a successful TV show host who returns to his small hometown.

DALLAS &#8212; &quot;Pardon my Tony Soprano look here,&quot; said Cedric the Entertainer, wearing a bathrobe and a knit ski cap, as he shuffled into a suite last month at the Crescent Court Hotel in Dallas. The 43-year-old comic had come to town to promote &quot;Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins,&quot; a new comedy about a successful TV host who returns to his small hometown. Cedric plays Martin Lawrence's cousin and childhood rival in the film, which opens Friday.

Born in St. Louis, Cedric first hit the comedy club circuit in the early 1990s, before winning a co-starring role on his pal Steve Harvey's eponymous TV show. But it was &quot;The Original Kings of Comedy&quot; &#8212; a 2000 concert documentary, directed by Spike Lee, about the stand-up tour featuring Harvey, Cedric, D.L. Hughley and Bernie Mac &#8212; that launched him into the mainstream.

As our interview began, Cedric had just woken from a nap. But he didn't hold anything back in a wide-ranging conversation that covered the controversy surrounding the movie &quot;Barbershop&quot; (Cedric played a character who was critical of Rosa Parks), the presidential election and his quest to become a superstar.

Did you realize when you were on &quot;The Original Kings of Comedy&quot; tour that it was going to transform your career?

We toured for three years before we shot (the documentary). You knew things were changing. I think it was the right time. There was a large influx of black comedians, with &quot;Def Comedy Jam&quot; &#8212; you'd see black comedians everywhere. After a while it started seeming the same. But this was like, &quot;Four of these hot guys, all together in one place.&quot; It turned it into more of an event.

How immediate an impact did that movie have on your career?

Oh, it was pretty immediate. It opened really big that weekend, and it caught everybody off guard. And that's pretty much what you need in Hollywood, to catch people off guard.

You've been working pretty much uninterrupted since then?

I still haven't found that super blockbuster that represents who I am, but definitely I've been working consistently.

Did your career suffer any over the &quot;Barbershop&quot; controversy?

It was temporary. There was a backlash. Fans of mine were offended by the statements. If you say anything negative about that historical period, you have black people jumping all over you. (But I'm saying,) &quot;Here's another point of view. Why don't you look at it from another angle?&quot;

That must be frustrating. You're trying to start a dialogue, but the audience doesn't want that. People just want you to be funny.

That's the thing. There's a lot of controversy now with the presidential race. It's like black people are automatically supposed to vote for Barack (Obama) because he's a black man. But Martin Luther King and the civil rights activists didn't fight for the voting rights act and civil rights so that you could go and vote for someone just because he's black and you're black. That's not what that's about. It's about the right to be a voter, and the right to have a choice. On one hand, you got a black guy running for president. So, yeah, give him some thought. But at the same time, we have a country that's in turmoil, a lot of stuff is going on &#8212; we've got to look for who's the better person to guide the country.

In &quot;Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins,&quot; you're sharing the screen with Martin Lawrence. Is it difficult to put your ego aside and appear opposite a big star?

I walked in and said, &quot;OK, this is your ship, I'm the co-star.&quot; I thought it was really commendable for him, because there are so many big personalities in the movie &#8212; Mo'nique, Mike Epps. They have the kind of comedy that's always on.

Yeah, it's like Martin's the straight man in this.

That's what happens. And I've been in that situation before, where you end up the person who's supposed to hold the movie together, and you find yourself being the straight man. You're like, &quot;All right, let me come off as a thespian. Let me be the Ac-Tor. You be the funny one, and I'll ... I'll get the Golden Globe.&quot;